CIA accused of killing NZ PM
by Christopher Dore
The Australian - September 1, 1999 p5
The CIA not only helped to remove Gough Whitlam from office but was
behind the sudden death of former New Zealand Prime Minister Norman Kirk,
New Zealand Labour Party President Bob Harvey claimed yesterday.
Mr Harvey said Prime Minister Jenny Shipley should, at the APEC summit
next week, confront US President Bill Clinton over the 1974 death in
office of Kirk and demand secret CIA files be opened.
He said the US was motivated to poison Kirk, who died of a heart attack
25 years ago yesterday, because of his anti-nuclear stance and his
determination to bypass Washington to deal directly with Arab countries
during the international oil crisis.
"I thought that was courageous, brave and probably fatal if someone told
Washington those things in those days," Mr Harvey said.
"Gradually and slowly, something was probably administered along the way."
Mr Harvey, who masterminded Labour's successful advertising campaign
in 1972, said it was likely the CIA went one step further with Mr Kirk
than they had with Mr Whitlam because he was more dangerous.
Whitlam on the other side of the Tasman got booted, as you know, because
of the CIA involvement in Pine Gap, the tracking station," Mr Harvey told
national radio.
"He said to me once he got off lightly."
The extraordinary claims embarassed the Labour Party and forced opposition
leader to dismiss them and silence Mr Harvey, fearing the comments would
fuel anti-US sentiment.
Mrs Shipley labelled the allegations "bizarre and sad", while Bob Tizard,
former Labour deputy Prime Minister and a close friend of Kirk's, said
"the conspiracy theory is a heap of crap".
The US ambassador in Wellington, Josiah Beeman, laughed off the claims,
saying Mr Harvey had read too many spy stories. "The next thing he's
going to be accusing the CIA of is causing the All Blacks to lose to
Australia last Saturday," he said.
ACT Party leader and former Labour minister Richard Prebble described the
claims as absurd.
"Why is Mr Bob Harvey, president of a party that hopes to be the government
within three months, publically asking our Prime Minister to insult the
US by asking 'did you murder one of our prime ministers?'"